Interested in an affordable ukulele starter pack for your child? I found one here!We had a blast experimenting with Hula dancing today in music! The kids enjoyed watching this video of Hula dancing from Hawaii. We discussed that, unlike many modern dances, Hula is not performed solely for enjoyment, but to tell important stories and myths from Hawaii's culture (like all other tribal dance). I explained a few of the movements that I know and if you listen closely to the video below, you will hear the word, "Pele", which is the Hawaiian fire Goddess who creates lava in the volcanoes. This song and dance is a story about how Pele's powers affect everything, from birds to plants.
We then enjoyed trying some hula dancing out ourselves with the cute as a button ukulele that was a gift to JN Music class from Miss Sally! The kids laughed when I told them about how I tune my ukelele--by singing a common tuning tune whose lyrics say, "my dog has fleas". We also touched and strummed the four string instrument and tried performing storytelling hulas with movements to well known songs like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Row Row Row your boat" in the hula style with uke!
I also took an opportunity to do a reading and listening activity with the children this morning. Using the book The Surprise Garden by Zoe Hall, I gave children fruit and veggie shakers and asked them to shake their instruments and shout "SURPRISE!!!" every time that they heard the word "surprise" in the book, which happened about 8-9 times. According to a school wide poll, watermelon happens to be one of the most popular garden grown items to eat! :)
